Homegrown

New Zealand Gardener's new special edition Homegrown has hit the shops this week. It's a month-by-month guide to growing, sowing, harvesting, pickling and preserving all your own fresh fruit and veges. I think it's rather marvellous, but then I would: I wrote it. Homegrown follows my year of living out of my inner-city garden and includes loads of tried-and-tried recipes from our readers.
I made a jar of mint jelly last night (the recipe is on page 67). Mint is one of my favourite garden flavours and I've got a huge bed of it (mint is a terrible thug and takes over if you let it). Unfortunately, my mint only stays looking good for about two months - October and November - then it gets too dry and succumbs to rust, so preserving it makes sense. Mint jelly is traditionally eaten with lamb but it's just as good with new potatoes... or with steamed broad beans. I was given a big bag of broad beans from two readers - thanks Beau and Margaret - on Sunday at Ellerslie. They were delicious! I love broad beans but I'm not so good at growing them. My plants always end up straggly and a bit sad-looking.
I signed over a thousand copies of Homegrown during the Ellerslie Flower Show - my gardening arm is still sore!! You can buy Homegrown in supermarkets and bookstores, or get it online (there's a special subscriber price of $11) from Mags4Gifts.